Charging that the Los Angeles Unified School District school board plans to eliminate adult and early childhood education in June, concerned adult students and educators took to the streets twice last week in protest.

Their picket signs and messages increasingly threaten a recall of Board President Mónica García and her fellow members on the school board.

Hundreds of protesters from all over LA County took over Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights last Friday, March 29. LAPD Hollenbeck Police Captain Anita Ortega, who watched the protest from across the street, put the crowd at close to 500.

Much of the protesters’ anger was directed at García, who represents many of the schools on the Eastside.

“[Monica García] Nobody wants you here,” one speaker said Friday from the Mariachi Plaza stage. “When we decide to remove you, we will remove you,” someone yelled out in Spanish.

Protesters rallied at Mariachi Plaza on March 29, and at Lincoln Park on March 30. (EGP photo by Gloria Angelina Castillo)

When asked why their posters focused on Garcia, protesters said it’s because of her background and position on the board.

“Shame on Monica García, isn’t she a Latina? Didn’t her family learn to speak English?” said Jaime Franklin, an English teacher at the adult school at Franklin High School in Highland Park.

“This is where her office is and she is board president,” Hollywood Community Adult School teacher Carlos Palm told EGP, while carrying a sign calling García a “traitor.”

Last month, the LAUSD school board approved a budget for the 2012-13 school year that maintains adult and early education, but only if furlough and salary concessions are approved by labor unions.

It also requires voters to approve a $298 tax on every parcel in the school district.

The plan was approved 6 to 1, with only Board Member Marguerite LaMotte (District 1) opposing.

"Recall/volunteers" signed in for the rally in Lincoln Park. EGP Photo by Gloria Angelina Castillo

However, after the vote Superintendent John Deasy cautioned that cuts could still come if UTLA doesn’t make concessions or if the governor makes more cuts to education between May and November. LAUSD has also considered cutting after-school programs and increasing class size, and over 11,000 employees have already received pink-slip layoff notices.

On Saturday in Lincoln Heights, a smaller group of protesters again rallied against the cuts to adult education and promoted a recall of García.

“RecallMonicaGarcia.com Pink Slip for Monica Garcia!” one sign read, the website is not fully developed.

An organizer at the Lincoln Park protest told EGP more information can be found at saveadulted.org and on Facebook under “Save Adult Education.”

John Fernandez, a former LAUSD teacher and school board candidate, was especially strong in his criticism of García, calling her a “vendida, hypócrita … es la muerte” (sell-out, hypocrite and death incarnate).

He accused Garcia of being loyal to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose partnership is running several schools in the city with mixed results, and noted her ties to Councilmember Jose Huizar and former school board candidate Luis Sanchez. Sanchez was one of Fernandez’s opponents in the race for the board— neither candidate won.

Epimenio Ponce attends Roosevelt-Garfield Community Adult School. He told the crowd he plans to collect recall signatures at his school. “My dream is to be somebody who can contribute to this country,” Ponce said in English and Spanish, noting that the English he knows he learned in adult school.

Not everyone at the protests was as ardently focused on García, however.

Rally organizers Curt Clyborne and Araceli Pelayo, who would only identify themselves as adult educators, downplayed the recall message. They said the purpose of the rally was to inform the public about the essential services adult education offers and the importance of coming together to preserve it.

A recall, not directed at any one board member is a consideration, but what we are really trying to do is send them the message that they are our elected representatives and “have to be attentive to our needs,” Clyborne said. Someone has to represent the people who need adult education to get a high school diploma or GED, or entry-level job skills, he said.

Clyborne said local colleges are unable to provide those forms of adult education, and “if we pull this out from under the community, there’s not going to be anything there.”
It’s nothing against just one member of the school board, Pelayo said.

“We need their support.” They were elected to represent us and our children, she said.

“It’s not just adult education, it’s early childhood, it’s the cuts to K-12, it’s everything.”

The district faces a $390.2 million budget shortfall in 2012-13. Deasy hopes approval of a parcel tax in November will generate about $170 million. But the measure could be facing a tough fight, since it requires approval by two-thirds of voters — the same voters who rejected a smaller parcel tax in 2010.

García’s communication director, Lizette Patrón, said the budget approved on March 13 includes funding for adult education, and outlines three plans for restoring funding pending negotiations with teachers and the outcome of the parcel tax vote proposed for November.

“From the February 2012 fiscal plan of $557million, about $180 million was restored in the March 13th Plan, including $15.6 million for Adult Ed (Career Technical Education, CTE) to high school students through the Regional Occupational Program (ROP),” Patrón told EGP in an email.

García and Deasy met with Gov. Jerry Brown regarding the budget, and García’s “efforts were key in helping restore funds and reduce the deficit,” Patrón said.

García was first elected to the school board in 2006. She is in her fifth term as board president. Prior to being elected to the board, García served as chief of staff to José Huizar, who was LAUSD Board President at the time. Her current term expires June 30, 2013, according to the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office.

Vernon’s independent watchdog is looking into allegations of potential voter fraud in the weeks leading up to the April 10 city council election, in which incumbent Daniel Newmire will face off with challenger Michael Ybarra.

The inquiry was prompted by complaints that nine voters are registered at the same three-bedroom home, said Vernon Independent Ethics Advisor John Van de Kamp, who has a team of investigators walking the streets, interviewing voters, candidates and city council members to determine their history and voter registration status.

Information gathered will be shared with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, he said. Shiara Davila-Morales, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said that as of Tuesday, a criminal investigation had not been opened.

Meanwhile, the seventy or so voters in Vernon’s first city council seat election in over 20 years are being placed under a microscope.

As the individual campaigns court voters, they are also scanning voter registration logs, casting a suspicious eye on any sign of unusual activity, flagging households with a high number of registered voters, those newly registered and voters living in an unusual location. In one instance, two registered voters listed addresses that do not exist.

In a city with so few voters, “obviously votes, four or five one way or the other, could tilt the election,” said Van de Kamp.

During a city council meeting on Tuesday, members of the business chamber, which is officially endorsing Ybarra, intimated that the household in question is connected to Councilman Richard Maisano.

“What I find disturbing … that a few of these [people in the] households come from … Mr. Maisano, your car wash at the Red Carpet Car Wash…” Vernon Chamber of Commerce Director Marisa Olguin said during the meeting’s public comment period.

Hector Moreno, who leases the house on Furlong Place where nine voters are registered, is employed at a carwash run by Maisano. Moreno himself is a legal resident and cannot vote, but another person with the same last name and others at the address are registered to vote.

Maisano told EGP on Monday that two of his employees have lived in Vernon housing for years. “I think it’s just politics as far as the election and candidates … This hasn’t been an issue for three or four years,” he said.

He believes that people have been moving in and out of Moreno’s household, including one family member who moved to San Bernardino three weeks ago.

Olguin added that she has just learned about five people living in a single apartment. “I’m concerned about this. I want the housing commission to take a look at some of the processes,” she said.

Olguin then turned her attention to Newmire, saying a chamber board member saw him with Michael Montgomery, a former attorney for the city, and Curtis Fresch, who got “$300,000 a year,” she said, even though it was unclear what he did for the city. Curtis Fresch does not currently work for Vernon.

“These are people who reflect the salaries we are trying to get a handle on,” Olguin said.

Newmire and Maisano did not address Olguin’s accusations during the meeting, but Newmire told EGP after the meeting that this election is a “rare thing that’s happening in Vernon.”

“People are freaking out, questioning who those people are … we’ve all been working to find answers to all those questions,” he said.

Newmire believes Moreno moved into the home in 2008, and thinks the other people living there are members of his family and friends he invited to live there to “help them out.”

As to the chamber’s accusation that he has been hanging out with members of the “old guard,” the old, corrupt Vernon; Newmire said his relationship with Fresch goes back to when they were neighbors.

Newmire said he has criticized the city’s relationship with his former neighbor’s highly paid brother, Eric Fresch, a former city administrator, former city attorney, and now a highly paid financial consultant to the city. Just because he associates with Curtis, does not mean he also associates with Eric, Newmire said, adding the two brothers have not spoken to each other in awhile and are “on the outs.”

He added that while the chamber is attacking him and Maisano, who is up for reelection next year, no one is “questioning the other side.”

Why hasn’t anyone mentioned the three voters registered at the address for La Villa Basque, a restaurant owned by former mayor Leonis Malburg, or the two additional voters registered at his opponent’s home, he asked.

According to Devyn James, one of the voters registered at La Villa Basque, four people live in an apartment above the restaurant. James told EGP his cousin works in the restaurant, and he just moved in last week. James said he is looking forward to voting in next week’s election.

Van de Kamp said they have more to unravel in the days ahead. “We’re being careful, because we do not want to prevent someone eligible to vote from voting,” he said.

He assured the city is “moving toward a clean election, and we urge cooperation from all the citizens in this community to help us get to that point, because it’s in our interest for all concerned that this is done the right way,” he said.

Candidates should be talking about “their vision for what they want to see for Vernon in the years ahead, what their relationship to Vernon will be,” he said.

Olguin said the chamber is pleased the DA may be getting involved. “I’m very concerned, but very happy that the judicial system, the DA’s office is going to be taking care of this. It’s out of our hand. Regardless this is going to be democracy. It may be messy… but we can get past this one and go on to the next one.

Meanwhile, Sen. Kevin de Leon, whose support for the city last year helped save it from disincorporation, has taken a special interest in monitoring Vernon’s progress toward reform. He released a statement last week saying he is confident that the investigation will root out what is left of the city’s old ways.

“This is the last stand of the old guard in Vernon and if they think they can steal an election they’re badly mistaken. Old habits die hard, but this investigation demonstrates that the necessary safeguards are in place to root out corruption and fraud wherever it rears its head,” he said in a statement.

Six years ago Vernon nearly held a contested election, in which a group of people moved into a building and registered to vote soon after. The city claimed at the time that this was a plot to take over the city and rescinded the city council election nomination papers and voter registrations of the newcomers.

Several measures were subsequently adopted by the city to prevent a takeover, such as only having one council seat come up for a vote at a time, thus preventing a takeover of the city council.

The city’s former mayor, Leonis Malburg, was convicted of voter fraud in 2009, along with his wife. The courts ruled that his actual residence was in Hancock Park, rather than in Vernon.

In an earlier version of this story, Marisa Olguin was quoted as saying Curtis Fresch is receiving $300,000. Fresch’s contract with the city was terminated in 2011.

Montebello officials said Monday that the city could be facing a $17.3 million deficit over the next five years.

An accumulation of debt, starting with a $3 million shortfall in the upcoming 2012-2013 budget, is being blamed for the possible financial hole.

The loss of redevelopment is driving the $3 million deficit in the immediate, upcoming year, according to Finance Director Francesca Tucker-Schuyler.

Montebello will loses about $1.5 million in revenues used to run the redevelopment department eliminated in February, and the transit department, she said. The city will also now have to use funds from it operating budget to pay for $1.3 million in costs and salaries that used to be covered by redevelopment funds.

The five-year projection lays the groundwork for a plan advanced by city staff to place a sales tax e, utility tax, or parcel tax increase on the ballot sometime in the next two years.

“This is a billboard sized warning,” Interim City Administrator Keith Breskin stated during Monday night’s special meeting to discuss the budget.

The $17.3 million projection does not include obligated contributions to a “rainy day” reserve fund. In recent years, the city has exhausted its revenues and has had trouble coming up with cash to pay employees at the start of the fiscal year. If the city does make contributions to its reserve fund, the deficit could increase to $20.5 million over the next five years.

After listening to the staff report, Councilman Art Barajas and Mayor Pro Tem Christina Cortez declared they would not support a tax increase plan, but Mayor Frank Gomez said the city needs the additional tax revenue.

Cortez said it would be wrong to tax residents while the economy is still bad. Instead, she recommended that the city pursue a shop local campaign, work to turn a profit on its enterprise fund projects such as the golf course, and watch its spending.

She blamed the city’s budgeting and financial woes on poor decision-making. She noted that she voted against a decision to take over payments on a redevelopment agency debt, in return for the agency forgiving millions owed it by the city’s General Fund. Now the city is on the hook to pay it off. Cortez said.

But Gomez said if the city has done everything it can to cut spending, and if they do not increase revenues through a tax, the city would be forced to make more cuts resulting in a further decline in city services. Not only is the city now only opening four days a week, “on some days, it’s difficult to find anyone at city hall,” he said.

Councilman Jack Hadjinian instructed staff to bring back more alternatives to the tax plans they laid out. Councilman Bill Molinari said the city has allowed too many economic development possibilities, such as bringing in more big box stores or helping to develop a local hotel, slip through its hands in the past, and has to start thinking more like a business.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy has approved 19 Public School Choice 3.0 plans, 12 of which only received provisional approval, the school district announced March 29.

“These proposals are both comprehensive, and driven by teachers,” Deasy said in a written statement. “We look forward in working with the applicants to provide a quality education for thousands of our students.”

Now in its third year, Public School Choice is an in-district reform initiative that allows education-based groups to take on the management of poor-performing LAUSD schools. Selection is based on an application process, which includes providing the district with a proposed management and instructional plan aimed at turning the low-achieving school around.

Wilson High School in El Sereno is among the existing schools being processed under the third round of public school choice. The reform plan for Wilson, headed by Principal Ursula C. Rosin, received provisional approval last week.

Wilson’s instructional program is modeled after an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme.

“If the outcome of the upcoming IB review is favorable, the district would have its first IB feeder pattern, as the feeder elementary and middle school are both approved IB schools,” according to the school district.

Under this plan, Wilson will be reorganized into six Small Learning Communities: Environmental and Urban Studies; Business and Technology; Agents of Change; Visual Arts; Performing Arts; and Health Science; and two magnets Police and Law.

However, the district is concerned that the annual academic performance targets for Wilson are “strikingly low and do not communicate confidence in the instructional plan submitted,” according to the school district’s provisional approval.

In addition to improving and updating its performance plan and getting IB approval, Wilson must also receive UTLA waivers to realize a proposed Expanded School Based Management (ESBM) governance model, which the school staff and administration must also vote on.

The school was also asked to further clarify its Service Plan for Special Education.

Proposals to run a new high school in East Los Angeles did not fare as well as at Wilson.

Both of the applicants for the Hilda Solis Academy High School were asked to rewrite their plans, and a previously rejected public school choice applicant was invited to reapply.

The campus was previously referred to as East LA Star.

One of the returned applications — Hilda Solis Learning Academies —was from a team led by UTLA, the union that represents teachers in the school district. The other returned proposal was from a team from Local District 5, and called Hilda Solis Medical & Health Academy.

Like Wilson, the Hilda Solis Medical & Health Academy is proposing to run an IB program at the school, “but it does not explain how it will be rolled-out or implemented or what it would look like across the school,” the order to rewrite states. The district, however, says the plan shows “a strong connection to the community and detailed parent and community engagement plan.”

Both the UTLA and the LD-5 proposals must receive UTLA waivers for the school’s staff. The teams must also revise and resubmit the curriculum and instruction sections,
the professional development, and assessments and school-wide data sections of their proposal by April 27.

The teacher-led team, whose “Technology, Business and Education School” proposal was originally submitted for the new Sonia Sotomayor campus in Glassell Park during the second round of the reform process, was invited to submit an updated proposal to run Hilda Solis Academy.

This plan needs to identify whether waivers will be needed, and if so, the rationale for approving. LAUSD staff will be assigned to support the school during the rewrite process, according to the district. This plan also must meet the April 27 deadline.

Several changes to the Public School Choice reform have taken place since the last cycle. The Superintendent’s recommendation is now final and no vote by the Board of Education is required, according to LAUSD.

Schools selected for reform under PSC 3.0 are scheduled to reopen under new management in the summer or fall of 2012.

Parent and community engagement meetings for Wilson and Hilda Solis took place in February, between 50 and 60 people attended each meeting, according to Gayle Pollard-Terry, LAUSD Deputy Director of Communications & Media Relations.